Bourbon Barrel Grill Wood

Step up your next BBQ with these smoky bourbon grill chips

One of our favorite Fancy Food Show finds, Bourbon Barrel Foods harnesses the flavors in bourbon barrels to infuse salts, sugar and spices as well as their barrel-aged soy sauce, sorghum, Worcestershire and Kentuckyaki. Now Bourbon Barrel Foods has begun selling the wood that they use to smoked their products. Available in three-pound bundles or 20-pound cases, the repurposed bourbon barrel staves bring the rich bourbon flavors to grilling and barbequing at home.

"These staves will impart a rich, oaky, almost buttery flavor to everything," says founder Matt Jamie. "My favorite is to grill a thick ribeye that's been rubbed down with our smoked salt, pepper and paprika. I also like to roast oysters with a bourbon brown butter garlic sauce. I make hot smoked salmon with sorghum. I've made a whole pork loin. You name it and it tastes better."

Jamie has been working on this project off and on for about two years. "I grill exclusively with hardwood charcoal and barrel staves at home and we had been selling pallets of them to restaurants around the country," he says. The next step was to develop the retail design of the grill wood. Jamie explains, "I wanted people to see the wood for what it actually is, bourbon barrel staves. The cool part about our product is that you can see the char, how far the bourbon has soaked into the wood, and the components that make up the stave."

Jamie considers the barrel staves to be easy to use and versatile for all types of smokers and grills and, he notes, they won't go bad. Bourbon Barrel Grill wood is available from their online shop for $14 or $78 for a case.